Victims of sex crimes: testimony: video recording.

Existing law provides that when a defendant has been charged with certain sex crimes, including rape and sodomy, and the victim is a person 15 years of age or less or is developmentally disabled as a result of an intellectual disability, when the defendant has been charged with spousal rape or corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition upon certain persons, or when the defendant is charged with certain sex crimes, including rape and sodomy, that are committed with or upon a person with a disability, the prosecution may apply for an order that the victim's testimony at the preliminary hearing be recorded and preserved on videotape. Existing law authorizes the court in any criminal proceeding to order that the testimony of a minor 13 years of age or younger be taken by contemporaneous examination and cross-examination in another place, out of the presence of the judge, jury, defendant or defendants, and attorneys, and communicated to the courtroom by means of closed-circuit television. Existing law also requires the court, when the court makes that order, to order that a complete record of the examination of the minor be made and preserved on videotape. This bill would allow a court to use any means of video recording to comply with these recording and preservation requirements.